Thursday, July 31, 2008

Day 21 and 23

Day 21
I met Kiran Martin yesterday, who is Papa’s old friend from college, who heads the Asha foundation. She was very kind and jovial. She hadn’t talked to my dad for 25 years, but he called her up for a favor just for me. Nana and Nani came with me to the meeting and sat there all ominously, watching over the goings-on. There were about 10 white people who had come also to volunteer, a fact that Nana/Nani would later admit had impressed them, and we were having a meeting about various activities that Asha has been a part of. Kiran was telling about how the slums in Delhi had been positively affected by Asha’s teachings about finance, how to open a loan, how to pay it back on time, because of the great difficulty and confusion attached to getting a loan and presenting yourself well in the slum community. But with the help of Chidambaram, banks would come to the slums and offer them loans. I think it’s so wonderful (I’m wonderfully lucky) that everyone I know has such great connections with these NGOs.
So I will start working in a school from tomorrow. In the meantime, I have moved to Reenu Bhua’s house, which is far different from living with Nana and Nani. There is a lot of activity, and I’ve already met like 10 people, who are friends of Abhishek and Abhinav, and Vidush and Priyanka came to see me before they left Delhi. To be honest, I don’t have much to say for today.
Leaving Nana and Nani’s house was quite sad though. I realize that their lives get so exciting when they have someone to fuss over, particularly Nani. She is so happy to do things for me and ask me how I am and make sure that I’m taking medicine. She said, “I know you’re happy to leave me, but I will be missing you so much.”
Day 23
I just watched Joker-- I mean Batman: The Dark Knight (sorry Christian Bale)-- and it was incredible. I thought that Abhinav was just, you know, being Abhinav when he said he’d already seen it twice, but he spent his money well. It was just such a mind-trip the whole time, wonderfully gripping and scary enough for me to love. Kind of like a higher tech, less jaded Sweeney Todd for our time. Just when you thought you were over Heath Ledger’s death, it comes and hits you right where it hurts.
But New Delhi with Bhua isn’t all fun and games… except that it sort of is. I’ve started working in this school at Jeevanagar near the slums and I constantly play games with the kids, who are much more disciplined than the Bangalore kids, maybe because we have translation and they all go to school besides this one. Bhua decided that it would be good for Abhinav to volunteer as well, so we are together, teaching a bunch of kids English: boys in the morning and girls in the afternoon, for the most part. When we got to the school yesterday for the first time, the children (who had waited for us for a whole hour to come because we got terribly lost trying to get to Asha and terribly stuck in traffic on the way there) ran up to us and threw flowers and rice in our faces, as a welcome greeting that Abhinav would later recall to be the most embarrassing moment of his life. Abhinav and I, who had just woken up from a sleepy car ride, groggily accepted their happy handshakes and very awake “Good Morning Sir/Madam”s. So we came in and the lady who met us at Asha, Sweeti, introduced us to the kids, telling them I was from America and Abhinav was from Delhi. The children seemed so excited about these facts and jumped up one by one to introduce themselves with the few English sentences they knew. “Hi, my name is__________. I live in _____________. My hobby is _____.” So Abhinav and I taught them adjectives by having them describe themselves. Today we made a big list of adjectives, and then started teaching them about the subject of the sentence. The boys seemed to really like that.
We’ve had only one class with the girls. Unlike the boys, the girls either really know English or really don’t, and there is not a ton of in between, which makes teaching them a little harder. Also, today, we didn’t have anyone in the class because classes cut off early for a school wide seminar on education and its importance, so instead of teaching a lesson, I tried to teach them a song and I have to say, the children need a music class. None of them can stay in the same key, and I don’t think it’s because they don’t have it in them. It’s just that they haven’t listened to enough music or had any instruction. Some people can match, but few can stay in key. So maybe I will teach them some music in the spare moments in lunch and between class.
I must say my body image has sucked lately. Somehow being around very skinny people just gets to me, even if they’re impoverished or Abhinav. Our internet keeps failing, and this is why you haven’t heard from me enough and also why these entries are late. Sorry. We thought it had started working again, but then it stopped again.

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